Rape

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many rape(a) complaints, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions there were (i) in total and (ii) in each county in England and Wales in (A) 2000 and (B) 2001. [23354]

The number of rape complaints is not collected centrally, but the available information relating to the number of recorded crimes of rape, together with the number of persons proceeded against and convicted of rape, by police force area for 2000 are shown in the table.

All the figures in the table relate to the rape of males and females. The two sets of figures shown in the table are not directly comparable as recorded crime is offence based and court proceedings are person based.

Statistics for 2001 are not yet available.

Rape—number of recorded offences and persons proceeded against and convicted by police force area in 2000

Rape—number of recorded offences and persons proceeded against and convicted by police force area in 2000

Police force area

Recorded offences

Persons proceeded against1

Persons convicted1

Essex

170

38

6

Gloucestershire

90

20

8

Greater Manchester

555

121

44

Hampshire

284

91

23

Hertfordshire

73

28

6

Humberside

152

26

6

Kent

178

50

20

Lancashire

172

73

15

Leicestershire

140

37

8

Lincolnshire

68

28

11

London, City of

—

1

2

Merseyside

212

68

9

Metropolitan police

2,217

340

110

Norfolk

106

14

5

Northampstonshire

49

4

6

Northumbria

239

94

19

North Yorkshire

54

15

7

Nottinghamshire

255

59

19

South Yorkshire

127

47

7

Staffordshire2

195

—

15

Suffolk

94

14

5

Surrey

119

19

4

Sussex

257

47

9

Thames Valley

273

45

15

Warwickshire

25

6

2

West Mercia

114

20

5

West Midlands

546

156

37

West Yorkshire

405

135

41

Wiltshire

73

9

4

Dyfed Powys

47

25

5

Gwent

106

25

10

North Wales

101

24

4

South Wales

125

65

22

England and Wales

8,580

2,046

598

1 Data are given on a principal offence basis. Persons shown as convicted may have been proceeded against in earlier years.

2 Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against at magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust at a detailed level and have been excluded from this table.